Fusilli Member since Aug-09-04 · Last seen Oct-19-25 Mariano Sana, Argentinian by birth, in the US since 1995. Naturalized US citizen. I hold a PhD in Demography from the University of Pennsylvania, and I am an associate professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University: https://as.vanderbilt.edu/sociology.... Previously, I was at Louisiana State University (2003-2009). My published academic work can be seen here: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/Mar.... My review of Gary Alan Fine's "Players and Pawns" is here: https://www.academia.edu/69647923/P.... My avatar comes from a cartoon of mine drawn by a friend. My username, besides the pasta, is my late cat's name (he died in March 2021, age 19), inspired by this cartoon: https://condenaststore.com/featured.... My first tournament was at age 12 in 1979. I finished 8th in the Argentine junior championship in 1985. So, I was good enough, but not great. (That same evaluation might still be apt today, on a good day.) Unfortunately, no game scores survived from those years. I started to play again after grad school. I play between 0 and 4 tournaments per year. I won the Louisiana State Championship in 2007. I lost the first game and then won six in a row. This was my last round win, where I got lucky after playing the opening pretty terribly: J Rousselle vs M Sana, 2007. I also won the under 2200 section of the US Open in 2014. Again, Swiss gambit. Lost the first one, then won five in a row, lost game 7 (M Sana vs J Sheng, 2014, a rather atypical game), and won games 8 and 9. My last round win was featured as a Tuesday puzzle: K Gulamali vs M Sana, 2014. (Try it! Black to play at move 29. But you can also do black to play at move 22 as a principled-move puzzle.) I'd say that I am essentially a good but inconsistent player. My playing style is a mix of strategic and tactical. I'm usually very willing to sac a pawn or allow positional weaknesses in exchange for active piece play. For years I hovered around 2200, down to mid 2100s a few years ago after a disaster and a 50-point loss at the 2019 World Open. (Aging and MS fatigue had much to do with that.) On good days, I have had nice wins: T Bartell vs M Sana, 2009, R Burnett vs M Sana, 2012, M Sana vs C Blocker, 2014, M Sana vs R Burnett, 2015. But on a bad day, I can play horribly and lose against whoever is sitting in front of me. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2011, but it didn't cause me trouble until 2018/9. I have a weak right leg (I often use a cane now) and I fatigue easily. Medication, well-timed naps, and exercise help. I play blitz games on chess.com under the username RealFusilli. My participation on this website goes through ebbs and flows, and the majority of my posts are about chess. I often post on my own forum just to keep records for myself. Everyone is welcome to visit and share! (But please don't post about politics here.)

Fusilli has kibitzed 6255 times to chessgames   [more...]

Oct-07-25 Hikaru Nakamura    Fusilli: Back in the day, I would sometimes resign by picking up my king and placing it in front of my opponent. And one day I read that a GM (I think Sosonko) did the same thing, while saying, "here's, it's yours." So, sure, one for the crowd, why not.      Sep-15-25 L Mendonca vs M Yilmaz, 2024    Fusilli: <perfidious> <There have been POTDs presented by <cg> which have featured positions which were analogous to practical games rather than guess the move> Not sure I follow. To me, Guess-the-Move games do reflect practical play, since you have to make every move, ...      Sep-12-25 Leon Mendonca   Fusilli: Mendonca, no doubt originally spelled with a c-cedilla instead of a c, is a Portuguese surname, a reminder that Portugal colonized parts of India since as early as the 16th century.      Sep-12-25 A Mittal vs Y K Erdogmus, 2025    Fusilli: <FSR: Insane! The kid is a genius! I say he's a future world champion.> I share your enthusiasm but not your evaluation. The combination is absolutely beautiful but not hard to see for a strong player. It's a straight set of forced moves. I think it would be a Friday puzzle ...      Sep-10-25 Fusilli chessforum    Fusilli: <OCF> I'm kind of proud of myself I got it. The word puzzle was apt! Where did you source it from?      Sep-07-25 Karpov vs K Rogoff, 1971   Fusilli: Vintage Karpov gives a lesson on superior positional play. Every piece going to the right square at the right time. Or pretty close to that.      Sep-07-25 S Marangunic vs K Rogoff, 1971    Fusilli: <FTB> OK, here we go. I thought 16.Bxf6 was dubious. Why give up the bishop pair in a fairly open position? 16.Ne3 looks better to me. I was wondering what could be wrong with 23.Nb5. It turns out that after 23...Bf8 24.Rxd7 Rxd7 25.Nxa7 meets ...Bc5 followed by ...Rd2, which ...      Sep-07-25 Fridrik Olafsson    Fusilli: <perf> oh, right, I see      Sep-06-25 Peter Enders    Fusilli: <He died on his birthday :( > Very sad. It reminded me of this demographic research article I saw decades ago: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/143... Abstract: <This study of deaths from natural causes examined adult mortality around the birthday for two samples, ...      Sep-03-25 So vs D Gukesh, 2025   Fusilli: <beatgiant> Because I didn't see it? Or I like complicating things, especially my life? Who knows!

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My Facerook Wall

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 88 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jul-31-23    Check It Out: <And the capture en passant reveals a hanging white bishop on h8. Ouch.> The stinger at the end. Hard to see. Aug-01-23    Unstable Psychopath: <Fusilli> Can you offer some advice on how to improve one's chess after 50? Aug-01-23    Fusilli: <Check It Out> Very. Aug-01-23    Fusilli: <Unstable> I don't know, but I do know I play more relaxed now than when I was younger. Probably because I care less. I still calculate pretty well if I have some time, and I seem to have nerves of steel when the clock goes down to the last 5 minutes (with 30-second increments), while I see my young opponents squirm and sweat. (When I was young, I got frantically nervous in time trouble. Maybe I aged wisely, or maybe the 30-sec increment is the key.) On the other hand, it's much harder to commit opening variations to memory. My main problem now, as when I was younger, is poor evaluation of resulting positions after calculations. I calculate well and conclude the position I'll reach is something, and then it may turn out to be worse, or much worse, than I though. I see you like to ask questions. That's fine but I doubt I'll engage again if you don't post some info about you. I see you joined recently, but it looks like you've been here before and know about me more than a newbie to the website would. Aug-02-23    OhioChessFan: <30...Qb4, and I was able to save this! He had to move the h-pawn here (31.h4 gives +0.58 and 31.h3 gives +0.40). He played 30.d6: > click for larger view That is the epitome of a move that looks good but just isn't right. It fits all the typical chess bromides, "Passed Pawns must be pushed", "Give your Bishops open diagonals", etc and still isn't best. Aug-03-23    Fusilli: <OCF> True. If you want to see the rest: A DeCord vs M Sana, 2023 Aug-10-23    Chesschronicle22: Hi Fusilli, Im wondering, how's photography with you so far? My dad loves phptography yet, its macro photography Aug-11-23    Fusilli: <Chesschronicle22> It's going ok. I am learning and having fun. Mostly, I try to photograph birds, which can be pretty challenging. Aug-11-23    OhioChessFan: From a blitz game I played as White. Black just played Kf5? What is the winning move? What plausible move did I play instantly that threw away the win? click for larger view Aug-11-23    chancho: Looks like Rd6. With the threat of g4+ hxg4+ hxg4# Aug-11-23    Fusilli: <OCF> <Chancho> Yup, Rd6 and black is a sitting duck for the killing shot. Nice. Aug-11-23    OhioChessFan: I played g4+ and knew it was wrong instantly. I hung on to draw a Pawn down endgame. Aug-11-23    Fusilli: <OCF> Oh, darn. Fortunately, it was only a blitz game. I was wondering what black's last move had been. The suicidal Kf5? But good job on drawing with a pawn down. It takes precision. Aug-11-23    OhioChessFan: Yes, Kf5 was his move. Aug-11-23    Fusilli: <OCF> Oh, sorry, you did say that before. Aug-15-23    OhioChessFan: Fascinating endgame puzzle. White to play and win: click for larger view Aug-16-23    Fusilli: <OCF> Oooh... maddening. This will take a while. I am trying to imagine positions where white wins even with a black queen on board. Interestingly, neither one of these is winning: click for larger view click for larger view In both cases, 1...Qe3+ 2.Qxe3 c1=Q fails to the triangulation Qe4+, Qa4+, Qa2 mate. Too bad 1...Qa3+ does draw. So this won't work, but I have to start with something! (FWIW, I don't see how to get to those positions anyway except with blacks' help.) The semester is about to start and I have a lot of syllabus work to wrap up, as I introduced new books into my two courses and need to figure out how to make them fit nicely and what needs to go to make room for them. But I'll keep coming back to this. Aug-17-23    OhioChessFan: Yes White wins with a black Queen on the board... Aug-17-23    Fusilli: Amending my previous reasoning a bit, this is a known winning position: click for larger view The g pawn can be added anywhere, and the f-pawn can be added on f5 or f2. So... Can I get here? Hmm... Aug-17-23    moronovich: Qd5+,Qh1+,Qh7# But not 1. Qe6??? because of 1- Qf6+ ! with stalemate. For the human, in generel , backward moves are more difficult to spot than forward moves. Aug-17-23    Fusilli: <moro> If white moves, you have mate in one :) If it's black's turn, there is no defense against the mate threat (no defense that does not give up the queen). Aug-17-23    OhioChessFan: <Amending my previous reasoning a bit, this is a known winning position:> You're on the right track. What's the problem in the positions you posted on the 16th? Aug-17-23    moronovich: <<moro> If white moves, you have mate in one :)> Oh, sorry, off course. Didn´t realise it was that easy ;) Aug-17-23    diceman: <OhioChessFan: Fascinating endgame puzzle. White to play and win:> Well, this taught me you can fight on even if black queens. Of course, that is how it is setup. The location of the kingside pawns, as well as the action happening on the c file are important. The black king can't be allowed to escape to the left. Aug-18-23    Fusilli: <OhioChessFan: <Amending my previous reasoning a bit, this is a known winning position:> You're on the right track. What's the problem in the positions you posted on the 16th?> The problem was Qa3+, then Kxa3, c1=Q+, Kb3, Qd1+ and draw. We would want the white queen to be on e2, but then Qb2+ and black wins... Hm... I'll keep looking into the idea. <diceman> Did you solve it and what you posted are hints? Or are you sharing your process while trying to solve it? Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 88 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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